Hey everyone 👋 Happy 4th of July!

We’re Jason from NASA and Steve from Boeing – and now, we’re co-founders of Perseus Defense.

TL;DR — We're building guided micro-missiles that shoot down drones in combat

Ask: Do you know end-users across the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that could benefit from attritable anti-drone solutions?

https://youtu.be/o17lMdLuZWQ

❌ The Problem

Today’s Counter-Unmanned Aerial System (CUAS) solutions are too expensive, too heavy, too slow, and too ineffective.

1. 70-80% of battlefield fatalities come from drone strikes
2. $100,000+ kinetic solutions are used to counteract $500 drones
   • $500 drones are eliminating $100M assets
3. Current solutions are easily defeated with fiber-optic, visual inertial odometry, or simple waypoint navigation missions

$500 Ukrainian drones decimate $100M Russian strategic bombers

🚀 ** Our Solution **

Perseus is creating the first affordable guided micro-missile pods to bolster American defense capabilities both at home and abroad.

Our micro-guided missiles detect, identify, and eliminate incoming threats before they can reach their intended target. They cost less than $10k, which is 2 orders of magnitude less than the current best solutions.

Steve and I felt we could create a better solution to the CUAS problem and decided we had a moral obligation to follow through on that belief. We quit our old jobs and put it all on the line to fast-track this capability for the U.S. and our allies.

Perseus Defense Mark-II Guided Missile Test (Prototyped in 1 week)

The Team

Jason and Steve studied aerospace engineering together at Penn State University and founded Perseus Defense in 2025.

Jason (CEO) designed NASA’s Titan Dragonfly space helicopter, led a NASA advanced projects team to design a next-generation Mars helicopter, and has contributed to multiple aerospace programs across NASA, the DoD, and commercial sectors. He holds a PhD in aerospace engineering with specializations in aircraft design, supercomputing, and machine learning. Jason also taught Aerodynamics at Stanford, speaks four languages, and founded an international drone competition.

Steve (CTO) has worked as a swarm robotics researcher focused on building and deploying real-world autonomy. He won swarm robotics competitions with the Office of Naval Research, built autonomy that allows commercial aircraft to land themselves at Boeing, and developed collaborative behaviors for Unmanned Surface Vehicles at Applied Intuition.

Prepping a UAS-mounted Missile (Prototyped in 1.5 weeks)

🙏 Our Ask:

If you answer “yes” to any of these, we’d love your help:

• Have you been wondering how $500,000 CUAS solutions are supposed to combat $1,000 drones at scale?
• Can you introduce us to end-users across the DoD or DHS that are looking for better solutions to protect our troops, our country, and our allies?

👉 Contact us at founders@perseusdefense.com

Your help can make a huge difference as we work to protect the folks we care about abroad and here at home. Thank you!